Clyburn: Challenger was a GOP Plant

I have news for SC Congressman James Clyburn, Dems do hire consultants from GOP firms… Need I bring up the Name Bill Clinton and Dick Morris? Lets not paranoia cloud your judgment. Congressman Clyburn is ‘plant’ crazy right now as he also called Dem U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene a GOP plant as well.

Anyone who can look at the primary numbers can see that more votes were cast in the Republican races. The numbers reflect previous elections, thus, there is nothing to substantiate cross over voting. If that were the case, you would see higher percentage votes against incumbents like for Brown in Clyburns race. Clyburn came out with 90% of the vote.

A Democratic primary challenger in South Carolina who has been accused of being a “plant” hired for his Congressional campaign a GOP consultant who as recently as late last year was the campaign manager for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), according to campaign finance reports.

Businessman Gregory Brown says he challenged Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, in the Democratic primary on Tuesday because he’s worried about the state’s poverty rates and failing schools. Clyburn (D-SC) charged this week that Brown is such a political novice that he must be a “plant.”

Brown told TPM in an interview he was a legitimate candidate being targeted because he challenged a powerful incumbent. But his Federal Election Commission filings show his largest campaign payment was to a firm run by a GOP political consultant who is best known as Wilson’s former campaign manager and who currently works for other South Carolina Republicans.

Brown’s campaign paid Stonewall Strategies nearly $24,000 for “marketing” and “marketing materials,” according to his 2010 campaign finance reports. The firm is run by former Wilson aide Preston Grisham.

TPM took a look at Brown, who lost with 10 percent of the vote on Tuesday, after Clyburn asserted his candidacy might not be legitimate. The dust-up in South Carolina comes as a Democratic Senate candidate, Alvin Greene, won the party’s nomination without ever having run a campaign. Clyburn suggested Greene could be part of a nefarious plot that would also include Brown, and another Democrat, Ben Frasier, who won the primary in the 1st Congressional district.

Grisham, who graduated from University of South Carolina in 2005, appears to have spent most of his career working for Wilson.

He was employed by Wilson’s congressional office in some capacity from 2003 to late 2009 (with a year and a half gap in 2005-06). According to congressional pay records, he started as an intern, transitioned to a part-time employee gig, then finally became a special assistant from 2007 through the end of October 2009. At the same time, Grisham was campaign manager for Wilson’s congressional campaign from 2002 through 2009, according to Grisham’s LinkedIn profile. He was paid in that role as recently as November 30, 2009. (A Wilson campaign spokesman said Grisham is no longer with the campaign.)

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Albert Milliron is the founder of Politisite. Milliron has been credentialed by most major news networks for Presidential debates and major Political Parties for political event coverage. Albert maintains relationships with the White House and State Department to provide direct reporting from the Administration’s Press team. Albert is the former Public Relations Chairman of the Columbia County Republican Party in Georgia. He is a former Delegate.
Milliron is a veteran of the US Army Medical Department and worked for Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Psychiatry.